The Sacrificing Christ, Cheering God and Others
“And walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” (Eph. 5:2)
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom. 12:1b)
The vine typifies the sacrificing Christ, the Christ who sacrificed everything of Himself, and out of His sacrifice He produced new wine to cheer God and man. Under the Lord’s sovereignty, we may be put into situations where we need to sacrifice ourselves to make others happy. If in the midst of such a situation we contact the Lord, we will experience Him as the wine-producing vine, as the One who gives cheer to God and to others. In ourselves we are not able to live a life of sacrifice, for our life is a natural life, a selfish life. Only the life of Christ is a life of sacrifice. Christ as the sacrificing Lamb lives in us, energizing us to sacrifice ourselves for others to bring them cheer and to make God happy. The more we experience Christ as the vine with His sacrificing life, the more we will be energized to sacrifice ourselves to make God and others happy. We will be “drunken” with happiness, realizing that the happiest person is the one who is the most unselfish. (Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land…, msg. 5, I, II.A, A.1, C, C.1-3, 3.a-b)
Let us pray for all the saints, in the midst of various circumstances, to contact the Lord who is living in us and energizing us to live a life of sacrifice to cheer God and others. May our church life be filled with rejoicing in the Lord based upon our experience of this sacrificing Christ!
Inhaling and Exhaling the Word of God
“All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable…that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
Being a fully equipped man of God with the breath of God requires the exercise of our spirit, the continual receiving of the Spirit, and the breathing in of God’s word. A fully equipped man of God reads the Bible by means of all prayer and petition in the spirit to inhale God and ministers the word as the Spirit to exhale God into others. On God’s side, the Bible is God’s breathing; on our side, the Bible is for us to receive the breath of God as our profit…The issue of God’s breathing out of Himself through the Scripture for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness is that the man of God becomes complete, fully equipped for every good work. (ITERO msg. 5, I.D, II.A.2, II.B,C)
Lord, increase our inhaling and exhaling of Your Word that each of us may be fully equipped to be a functioning member in the good work of building Your Body to prepare for Your coming.
SoCal College Meeting
This Saturday evening, May 11, there will be a Praise and Ministry Meeting in Cypress for college students throughout Southern California. Please pray for a high number of students from many campuses to attend (including many newer ones), for the Spirit to flow mightily in this time, and for the word to be richly imparted into the students!
Bibles for America
Due to the ongoing instability in and around the Suez Canal, our next shipment of 25,000 Spanish copies of the NT Recovery Version has been delayed from May until the end of August. We currently only have about 100 Spanish copies left in our inventory. After prayer and fellowship, we have decided to continue allowing people to place orders for the Spanish copies while informing them it may take 3 to 4 months to arrive. In the meantime, we will send them a free copy of the Recovery Version of The Gospel of John which includes all the footnotes, cross-references, and outline points.
Please pray that this Bible shipment would not be delayed any further so that we can resume fulfilling orders for the Spanish NT as soon as possible. Pray also that everyone who places an order would dive into the riches in the book of John and be sanctified in the Word as they wait for their full NT to arrive.
2024 Olympics Torch Relay Gospel Trips
Last weekend’s conference in Paris, May 3 to 5, was a wonderful gathering and blending of around 300 saints from 21 countries, including French-speaking saints from France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The conference consisted of five messages on “Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord’s Appearing in order to Receive the Reward of Christ as the Crown of Righteousness” along with the Lord’s table. It was a timely and encouraging speaking particularly for the churches in the French-speaking world.
During the Olympic Torch Relay we are preparing to till the ground in many major cities along the route of the relay. We pray that during this time, Christ’s triumphal procession will move from city to city all over France (2 Cor. 2:14). The first two Torch Relay Gospel Trips are happening May 6 to 11 in Marseille and May 11 to 15 in Montpellier. The teams consist of FTTA-XB trainees and serving ones in coordination with saints from other French-speaking localities. Please pray for:
- The fresh and detailed consecrations of all the saints going out.
- A strong beginning to this series of gospel trips, including the gaining of experiences that might benefit subsequent trips.
- Many divine appointments to take place for the Lord to gain local French speakers and their families.
- The Lord’s testimony in Marseille and Montpellier to be raised up.
The April 2024 issue of LSM’s newsletter explains the current burden in the Lord’s move in French-speaking Europe at newsletters.lsm.org/having-this-ministry. Application for gospel trips is at www.amanatrust.org.uk/page/2024Paris. Saints in LA burdened to give for the distribution and associated expenses can do so through the Church in Los Angeles designated for “Paris Olympics.”
Italy
A conference will take place in Rome this weekend, May 11 to 12. Please pray for the Lord’s rich speaking and blessing on this conference to strengthen His testimony in this key European city and further His move in Italy and Europe.
Israel
Please continue to pray for the situation in Israel and the Middle East, that through the prayers of the saints the evil rulers and authorities in the air, and the human agents used by them, will be bound, and God’s interests will be furthered and His chosen ones preserved.
Pray that God will use the situation to cause the gospel of the kingdom to be proclaimed, and that many people, regardless of ethnicity, religion or background, will be unveiled to see Christ as the Savior and the only way to God.
Announcements
- Morning Revival: Week 5 of Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land…
- Wednesday Night Ministry Meeting: The ministry meeting continues this week starting at 7:25 pm.
- Free e-Booklets: Living Stream Ministry offers free e-booklets to read and share. The latest release is “A Life That Lives Christ” at www.lsm.org/life-study-philippians.
- Bibles for America‘s most recent blog post, The Crucial Role of Our Mind in Our Christian Life, is available to read and share at blog.bfa.org.
- Semiannual Training: July 1 to 6 in Anaheim. For LA saints, registration for participation by video is still open until June 16 ($130) at tinyurl.com/summertrainingla.
- Ways to Give: Information about the church’s online giving platform, Subsplash, and where to mail checks, are at www.churchinlosangeles.org/members/offerings.